Fruit: Vitamins C and P


Fruit is making a come-back running the gauntlet of myths against it.  
Even some beefatarians are getting fruity for balance.
Here are major myths, benefits, and individual considerations. 
 
Myth:  Fruit is Pure Sugar
 
Fruits have vitamins, minerals, fiber and water.
This myth is based on macro nutrient reductionism: proteins, fats and carb/sugar ratios are all that matters.
This perspective is concerned with insulin spikes from too many carbs out of proportion with protein and fat. This is a real issue and where my health journey started with a focus on blood sugar problems, but I never did optimally on low carb diets.
Low carb was a way to manage when I could not utilize carbs for energy due to micro nutrient deficiencies: mineral and vitamin cofactors to get sugar into the cells and burn it for energy. 
Now I can eat fruit without anything and not have a blood sugar problem.
Other nutrients in fruit:
  • Pure water, perhaps “structured water”
  • Potassium
  • Magnesium
  • Boron in grapes and raisins
  • Antioxidant bioflavonoids and polyphenols of which there are 8000 varieits
  • Red fruit skin is a prebiotc to feed Akkermania, a key probiotics for gut lining health.
  • Fiber to feed butyrate fuel for the colon and major hormone like substance for the whole body.
  • Enzymes from raw food to help digestion.
  • Some are protein digesting enzymes like bromelian/pinneable and papain/papaya.  
  • Alkaline minerals to balance acid meat eating.
  • etc. 
 
Myth: Fruit Feeds Candida
 
Candida may feed on refined sugar and cooked carbs but low carb diets alone don’t eliminate candida as years of keto proved to me.
Candida mutations are the result of broader terrain or whole body problems: nutritional deficiencies and parasitic infections.
Most people that I know who report candida as their problem only resolve it by eliminating parasites that are damaging the terrain that causes mutations of yeast into candida..
Candida can’t be just killed when it’s automatically generated by imbalanced and deficient terrain.  
Externally invading parasites can’t be just killed only but also the immune system needs to be boosted to prevent relapse.
Fruit helps build immunity and detoxify.
Vitamin C donates an electron to neutralize toxins including toxins from bugs, then the resulting free radical is used by white blood cells called neutrophils to be directed at pathogens and toxic chemicals that are destroyed or broken down by stealing their electrons. That is what oxidants do: like hydrogen peroxide and ozone that work if directed at the target, but too much breaks down your own tissues, or, if not directly by the immune system. 
 
Myth: You Can’t Get Enough Vitamin C from Fruit
 
You can’t compare amounts because the bioflavanoid polypheonols in fruit recycle it.
I don’t know how much C can be recycled, multiplied by 2, 3, 4…10?
Polyphenols are also anti-oxidants, which is more to the point of what is needed from C, so you don’t need as much C to fulfill antioxidant needs.
I have taken ascorbic acid in many forms for years with important benefits but don’t need it anymore eating a lot of fruit and feel worse taking it now that I have enough fruit.
I was introduced to ascorbic acid Dr Robert Cathcart, student of Linus Pauling and creator of the method of titrating to bowel tolerance:“Take it until you blow your guts out.” He was the doctor that diagnosed my mercury poisoning. 
 
Ascorbic Acid in Supplements and Foods is Identical
 
Not necessarily, depending on how much context is considered. 
It may look identical chemically but some is synthesized which means it may have impurities or denatured qualities not perceived.
More important is the problem with isolated nutrients: Some use a broader definition of C working with cofactors as “whole food C.”
The more important point is synergies lost with the other antioxidant bioflavanoidss and polyphenols that work together recycling each other, as well as other nutrients in fruit.  
The discoverer of vitamin C, Albert Szent-Györgyi, claimed it did not work as well without the bioflavanoid rutin, which he called vitamin P,I like to think of P as for polyphenols in general, as rutin is just one kind.
This was explained in a book on how antioxidants work together and recycle each other  by Lester K Packard, The Antioxidant Miracle.
 
Intolerances to Fruit
 
There are various intolerances to fruit that require avoiding it for awhile.
Sugars and fibers can be irritating, as with FODMAP.
But elimination diets are limited and should be temporary until one can rebuild digestion and the gut.
Taking vitamin C as ascorbic acid may be helpful in these cases.
 
Fruit versus Vegetables
 
Fruits were meant to be eaten, thus the sweet tempting exterior with seeds to be swallowed and deposited elsewhere.
Many plants have toxins to deter being eaten. This is what carnivore people point out, but I would not go to the extreme.
I eat far more fruit than veggies, but a few veggies are useful, too.
Even carnivorous coyotes eat fruit.
 
Cooked vegetables are over rated. I have not found most to be worth it.
The starchier ones can create AGEs: advanced glycation end products that create spots on skin.  
Fruitier veggies like tomato, cucumber and corn can be eaten raw for more benefit as heat destroys some nutrients.
Some vegetables are too fibrous to eat raw but there’s a trade-off with cooking..
Animals that eat plants like cows have multiple stomachs and complex microbiome for fermentation and digestion.
 
Myth: Fruit Is Too Cooling
 
By itself yes, being a fruitarian in a northern winter is not going to go well and can weaken digestion and the whole body.
Balanced with warming foods like beef fruit works.  
 
Myth: Fruit is too Yin and the Whole Planet is Too Yin from Radiation
 
There is no such thing as too yin even within that Daoist system of thinking: it’s all balance.
Radiation in the environment does not determine food choices like that.
Fruit helps detoxify from total toxic load.
This is a really off-the-wall claim by Lawrence Wilson, know for hair mineral testing, which is OK and a lot of his information is helpful, but to eliminate a whole class of food and instead over rely on cooked vegetables—I just don’t see the results.
 
Replace Cooked Starches with Fruit
 
The practical problem is that people don’t eat enough fruit to get enough of the benefits.
The main reason is that they are still eating cooked carbs that are too loaded with carbs to fill up on.
I can’t define how much anyone should eat or what fruits, or get into reviewing particular fruits as I can’t guess what anyone needs in comments on social media.
A general principle that can work for most people is to replace cooked starches / carbs with fruit.
You can experiment for yourself whether to continue to take ascorbic acid with fruit. 
 
​Eat to energize, detoxify & immunize.
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